SPEAKER_04 1:45

The Hill Top Globe Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Welcome to the Hilltop Glove Podcast. In today's episode, we are thrilled to have Tony Wadey, also known as the Hip Hop Picasso, joining us. Tony Wavy, a rising star in both realms of hip-hop, music, and painting, which is dope, very dope, hails from Monroe, Michigan, and was raised in Charlotte. Growing up in a musically inclined family immersed in church music, Tony's passion for art and music blossomed at a young age. Influenced by legendary producers like Jay Dilla, artists like Snoop Dogg, Tony's art and music are deeply intertwined, with each piece carrying multiple layers of meaning. Known for his lyrical mastery, style, and captivating hooks, Tony's music is a reflection of his self-awareness and creativity. His combination of storytelling, intricate wordplay, and dynamic delivery offers a fresh and exciting experience for all music enthusiasts. If you're seeking a new approach to music or simply looking for a collection of sounds that resonate, be sure to put them on your radar. How are you doing today? Man, y'all did y'all research. I'm excited. I'm trying to count that. I'm trying to count that with me.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Yeah, I'm excited.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

I'm excited.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

I'm excited about the intro.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

No, seriously. No, seriously. No, she does excellent research, man. Yeah, man. But um, we always like to start with the question of um, well, first of all, you're doing well today. Yeah, I'm blessed. Beautiful day. I feel looking very we have cheese when we're getting ready, y'all. Trying to make sure we're staying nice and moisturizing here, not ashy. So I try to make sure I moisturize the day I messed up, y'all. I had the shower's running behind me. So you shot naturally, you know what you can.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Yeah, man. Get my aquaphone. I like being greasy. My mom's greasing me up.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Say it. It's good for you. So um you came in looking great today. You gotta have a shine, man. So um it's excellent. I appreciate you coming in, sitting with us today. I love people take the time out of their day, especially when you're busy. You have lots of things to do. So um, we won't waste your time. I gotta ask you this, though. We always ask everybody this is how we start. Um, who or what influenced you growing up? Do you have any siblings? And what was your favorite musician? I mean, instruments as a child. And you can take your time on that, we just have to bother you. So I told our folks a little bit about yourself, who you are, where you're okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Well, you you talked a little bit about it in the bio. So, like I said, I'm originally from Michigan, so you know that Motown influence, Dillas, all those things. I had an uncle early on. He would sit, we would sit with him, he'd be making beats all day. He played the drums, then I come from a church family, so everybody sings, everybody does everything. So, like I grew up around, I grew up around that. So, music is like second nature, but I couldn't listen to hip hop, you know what I'm saying, in the car. I wait till mama got out of the car, I'm bumping Drake, you know what I'm saying? He on the radio over at that time. And you know, early on, it just it was just like I was fascinated with it, but like it wasn't like something I knew that I could do that I wanted to do. And like when it comes to like instruments, so I always wanted to play the drum, but my mom was like, that's too much noise. Learn the keyboard, a saxophone. So which which is crazy before actually, right before I moved to Charlotte from Michigan, um, I was playing the keyboard. The guy, he's like, Man, you're a prodigy, you know what I'm saying? But I was, I was just not, I I never got to finish learning it, so I never even got the keyboard. You didn't get to double. I I didn't get to dive deep into it. I was still doing it a little bit, but then it just kind of fell off. And you know, I kind of got back into it later in life.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Okay. Well, I have a question about this because you actually said something I like to talk about. So I tell you this, I always like bothering people about this. I love gosh movies. I like trying to movies, man. I love gossip. I like all right, so here's my question. Since you couldn't listen to hip hop, when you're riding with your parents, what what did they listen to and what did you like that they listened to? Because I know it can be two different things. I know that's how I want to know my grandma. She liked the Mighty Clouds of Joy. I want to hear Kirk from right. So we had to balance them.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Uh Jay Moss, uh, if you know about that, uh obviously Mary Mary, she had that hip-hop on uh what else? Uh Kirk. Uh I mean, but uh, we we got to listen to hip hop late, like you know, when Lacrae was coming out, you know. And that was a good Lord. Yeah, yeah. And look, people sleep on Lecrae. Lacrae got bars. Like, I think that's that's one of the early influences that sometimes I forget about because I listened to a lot of Lecrae. Like my first CD, we got it during Christmas. It was like, I can't remember what up tape it was. I think it was like Gravity or something like that, or something like that. But we used to listen to that back to back. Michael Jackson, too. My family, they let us listen to some Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Yeah, you gotta listen to the Move Town sound. Facts. Yeah, that was one of the things I was always happy about was like growing up, we didn't get to listen to a lot of hip hop unless it was bought in our cousins had it. And so um, we were lucky, like we would go hang out with them, we could hear it's early 90s. So we're talking about like some dog Dr. Dre didn't listen to Biggie and stuff when they first come down, Wu Tang and stuff like that. We'd be like, ooh, this amazing screen, it's music right here. Yeah, listen, but we would get to listen to anything that was low time. So, like growing up, I remember daddy bought us um, we had to take cassette damn cassette taste, cassette taste. I was a little kid, and I could the thing about cassette was easy, I couldn't really mess it up. So I'd put my little cassette and have my little earphone listening off the wall. Yeah, over and over and over again.

SPEAKER_03 6:56

So some people are still doing cassette. Yeah, cassette is dope, man.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

I mean, it's a good medium. Look, okay, laugh, yeah, a little cassette sound, man. I really been on the records, like the record players like recently.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Like, I love vinyl.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Oh, I love the resurgence of vinyl in the past couple of years. It it came back because not just listening to the vintage idea of it, but the art. The art ties in to you. Like the the cool thing about vinyls, especially with the way that they were consumed, is you had these large album covers. And so you gotta put something on that one space. White labels are cool, but you can't really sell white labels. So what it caused that was what what happened is you then had this huge art movement of people actually trying to design their covers to look dope, to be fly. And that's something I know when we make our playlist and we put this together, we do like looking at the artwork and see what people do.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Now today's more like aesthetic team. Like more people like they liken the record players for aesthetic too. Yeah, so like, but uh it's it's the vibe, it's just like that, it's just it has a nostalgic feeling to it. It does.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

That is one of our questions, though. So like your album cover work or your artwork?

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Uh so yes, I make I make my album um covers. So my recent one, I made it, but I collab with my brother Bryce O'Que, be mad out there in Lexington, so shout out to him. He's been doing a lot of artwork, we've been doing a lot of collabs, but usually I do most of my artwork and put it together and you know, front back, because I'm not paying nobody for some.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

He lives in life. Um and I know that from just from looking at your um your social media and whatnot, just seeing what you put out and and stuff like that. I like it, man. It's still actually stuff that makes me feel good. It doesn't hurt to look at it. Um and talk about that with your background and you playing uh playing instruments and et cetera, and learning the masters or things before you move into where you're at now. Did you did you plan on yourself going this specific direction? Or did you think you had to make a decision between music or art?

SPEAKER_01 8:55

So originally it started off with just art. Like that was my main thing. So like I said, my uncle who made beats, he also did art. So he would draw like so. That's what got me into like superheroes, comic books, wrestling, uh, Dragon Ball Z. That's why I brought the Dragon Ball Z piece with me. Uh, you know, he got me into things early on, and he was most like tons of dude too. So like early on, I'm like, okay, I want to be a comic book artist, I want to be an animator, I want to do all these, you know, superhero things, maybe do stuff like that. And then, you know, as I grew up, that was always in my head. Um, and then around like high school, I started discovering more of my artwork. And then, but then around that time, I was introduced to a thing called Inspire the Fire. And um, they actually was just on the what is that? America's Got Talent. Maybe it's on America's Got Talent. They was on there before there, too, but it was a camp. And I met a whole bunch of our other artists and stuff like that. So I went to the camp. Where's the located? It's in Charlotte, North Carolina. Yeah, just confirm it. Yeah, it went confirmed. Yeah, it's in Charlotte. So Dennis Reed, uh, I don't know if you guys know him, big out here. So um basically I went to the camp. I'm going in, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go do art, you know, because my mom signed me up, I'm gonna do art. But then I'm like, man, I wouldn't look into art classes where ain't nobody in here. I said, let me go to do um rap and poetry. And so I was like, okay, I went into rap and poetry, changed my life.

SPEAKER_04 10:12

Yeah, forever.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Seriously, so you went to a class? It was it was a camp. It was like a uh camp. So you can't like it's like a kid, they called it some some of the kids called it, it felt like camp rock. Like so, like, so it was like so it's a week camp. We there for a week, we integrated with all the so yeah, dance, drama, my little brother went drama, uh, art, all these different things, and then it's a performance at the end of the week.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

And um I went, I ended up going, they was doing ciphers. I'm I'm learning how to write better, I'm learning how to because I'm like I always was a fan of writing as well. I always like writing. I love English class and stuff like that. But um, I just started doing poetry and then they was teaching us how to enunciate, do these different things. Um and I went to perform and learn how to write and rap, and I was like, wow, I like I like this. So I continued on the next year in high school.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Were there teachers teaching it, or was this just you learning this from your peers?

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Kind of it was we had there was volunteer peers, which is funny. One of the guys who was uh the my volunteer counselor, whatever you call, I don't know what they call him. His name is Indigo Joe. Now I'm rapping with him and doing sure, you know what I'm saying? So shout out to Indigo Joe. But it's cool. How old were you when you went to that camp? Uh I was in 10th grade, so I was probably like 14, yeah, 15. But that's when I really okay, like, dang, I can write poetry. Yeah, no sense.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

So you put it all the time right there. But but continue my fault.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

But yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, you know, I hit high school, um, ended up linking with some of the people that was in the camp. They went to my school, I'm like, oh, they go to school. And they started a poetry club and rapping poetry club at the school. Yeah, then we end up doing a performance with that. So that's when I'm like, okay, around that time, that's when I really was falling into love with like music, poetry, writing. And I was still doing my art thing, and then um around that time, I was like, I'm still I'm trying to make money off my art even in high school. So I'm making clothes and painting on my clothes, painting on other people's clothes, yeah, drawing on shoes, doing all these different things. Anything, anything. Yeah, I've always been an entrepreneur, so like I've always I'm I'm figuring out how to try to make some bread. Like if I can do myself, why not make some bread for and then I go off to college? That's when I really start going into rap.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Which looks cool at.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

So I went to CP um for a semester. That's it. But I was going for my associates in arts. I was planning to transfer, you know, the thing. Let's go to CP then transfer there, and then I just never ended up finishing and um just started working jobs. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Were you happy about that? Do you think it turned out the way when you did not do that or no?

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Everything happens for a reason in the season. God worked it out so perfectly, planned it out so perfectly. So, like for the question where you say, Did I feel like I had to choose? I felt like I don't I could always do both. I was like, I'm but people would tell me, like, oh, you should do this, or you should just stick to this one thing. And then it was around the time where I was really pushing myself and you know, on social media, I'm like, maybe I should do a separate page just for music. Maybe I should do, and I was thinking about that for a while. Split the split the businesses, and then it was a got to a point where like I start going to shows, doing open mics, and um before like to really get into certain shows, I'm like, I'll just come do some art because they'd be like, Can you come do some live art? Yeah, I'm like, always read it. I'm like, well, I perform too. Um and then they asked me to come rap. I was like, Well, can I bring some art out? Can I bring the merch table? I'm not paying to be a vendor, I'm bringing my art out. I'm added to the I'm added to the aesthetics. I'm added to the I don't pay that vendors tax. I know, I know I used to, and then I'm like, okay, I'm gonna pack I'm the package deal. So it's it comes, it comes as a package. You get the art, you get the rap, you get the rap, you get the art. So they just started to all just come together. And then, like, you know, when I moved to Kentucky uh recently, like two years ago, I got the name Hip Hop Picasso. At first I was just your favorite artist, favorite artist. Like, because I'm just an all-around artist, because you know I'm into the fashion. Like you really mean it, favorite artists, favorite artists, yeah. So like some of all aspects of art, not just one thing. So they end up just all all coming together so perfectly. So I was like, they go together. You can't you can't separate the two. They are all three, but those those are my purposes, my purposes as well. That's why talk love. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

I saw the brand.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

I was okay. So, yeah, usually I so I got my hats for me. I actually won the Lexington Musical Awards out there, so it's been a blessing. So I've been watching that, yeah. So I got the hip-hop category, and you know, beautiful, yeah. But um, just yeah, so you got the children in the background, yeah. They do their thing, but um, it was beautiful to get that recognition. And uh when I got out there, um, you know, just coming with that talk, I I had this movement back in 2018. So 2018, I started it. It was like when I was trying to figure out my purpose. Who am I? What on earth am I here for? And um I started getting with other young people because I was like, you know, you get to that point in life when you're coming out of school, it's like, um, wow, where do I go? Where do I go? What do I do? What am I an artist?

SPEAKER_03 15:10

There's so many avenues of art uh A, B, C, D.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Make it power. Yeah, effects. And you just kind of feel you just feel lost. Like you just feel lost in the sauce. Everybody getting that point where they're just like lost in the sauce, and it's like, God, what do I do? And I got to that point, and I figured out like this gap that we all trying to fill is love. And you know, even with love, love, I feel like for me personally, God is love. And you know what I'm saying? I I choose to spread that movie. 24. I gotta make sure you say that. I think you say that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

You just said a gap, this this whole that we're all trying to fill is a gap.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

So that's why I got the little indents and stuff in the like, because we're not. But when you talk golden, and when you you know, when the when the things that you say are really what it is, and it's really about love, it's gonna be beautiful regardless of your flaws, regardless of what you look like.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

I even like the colors.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

So that's why I put that together. So, and like around that time, I was doing meetings with other young people. I didn't know where this was going. I started making shirts and stuff like that. This is the new logo I had made, and this is not the fresh hat. This is I get the bummy one. This is not the same. I keep the celebrity, I keep the, you know what I'm saying? The same prototypes. This is the prototype, but yeah, I got the other ones in the card. But um, yeah, so I just was, you know, pushing that message. I kind of fell off from doing the things, right? But then I was building my artist brand of who I was, and I I was like, let me just start wearing my brand. Let me just, you know, I finally, my wife finally found some patches. She got it from about a card at Christmas. I wanted some patches for so long, and I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to make these shirts because I'm like, I just rather do it myself, get it done. I finally found a patch person, got my got my patches made, been putting them on everything. So everything that you sew, so you sew to your your wife. So I sew, so she found so I found somebody that makes I learned how to sew in high school. No, it was uh I can't remember what that page.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

When was the class in high school?

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Oh, we had home addicts.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

It was a part of home addiction in this.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Wait, that's why they were saying, Yeah, you know what I mean. It's a different than what we were saying. Right, right. I can't I can't remember what it was. No, but that's dope. I'm still because all right, this podcast, um, we're we're trying to make sure that folks who and I like it because you said it. You really said it. You come out, you don't have a direction, you don't know where you're supposed to go. There's not like a built passage. No, it's it's not. And so our podcast, one thing we like to talk about, and you're doing such a good job of elaborating, is explain the process to get to where you want to be at. Because we, as young folks, we want, and this is one thing that we earn for that we didn't have, we didn't have a guidebook. There was no guideline. We went from analog to digital world, and we just dumped out and totally you got it. And like at that time, you couldn't get a darn PhD for $300 no more. You can't buy a house for under $12,000. Like, we're in a different world and economy, and so to figure out how to navigate it properly, those are gems. It's golden for people to see people like you do it properly, especially at your age. Um, I think it's always amazing. I tell people I'm really happy about the younger generation because I think they actually got it together in the sense of understanding to believe in themselves when they're doing things and where to put faith. I know there's this whole talk, and I'm gonna say this, but I'm gonna sound crazy, but I gotta say it. There's this whole talk that God has left the youth, right? And I'm like, no, I don't think so. They may have left the organized religion, yeah, but I don't think that we have left God.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

You gotta understand this it's relationship spirituality and understanding like it's more than just going to a building, it's more than it's understanding who you are and finding who you are through God. That's that's what it is, and whatever God you believe, what not, you know what I'm saying? Everybody got their own different pathways. I know for me personally, what I what I found and how that brought me to the place that I am, and finding out that you put love into everything that you do, there's no there's no telling what you could do. Like, yes, and what you and when your purpose is bigger than you, yeah. When you put love into that to reach other people, like my art isn't for me, it isn't just for the people around me, but it's for my family, it's for my way for friends. Okay, I get them. Just go relax. So it's it's it's it's bigger than just you, you know what I'm saying? So speaking of, yeah, you know, I got the kids with people like you know, I got married at 19 as well, so I'm married, I got you know, I got kids, so like I had to find a way because during quarantine, yeah. I'm talking so during quarantine, that's when I really started to get in that bag of like okay, because I have 2019, my firstborn was born, and you know, that's right when COVID and all these things were going on. That's what I was like, okay. That's actually why I brought that Kendrick Lamar piece right there. Oh that's one of the first ones, like that I realized, oh, I could paint faces. Yeah, I can't.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

And so you're basically self-taught.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

That's what I like.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

I give credit to my teacher, Miss Schaefer, though, and one of my high school teachers, because they, you know, with uh she really helped develop me a lot, uh, you know, as far as like, you know, just making sure critiquing me because I started taking art, uh AP art and stuff like that. Oh wow, I was taking all the art classes in school. Like, I'm you recognize life, yeah. Yeah, because I I love it. I love it. Yeah, and you know, I that even came full circle. My teacher actually been going to schools now, and she invited me to come to um Providence, Providence Day High School out here. Um, it's a private school out there. It's a crazy good performed, yeah. Wow. And did some paintings for that week, and they paid me to come out and do my show. Yeah, they treat me excellent. That's all I like to hear. That's all I like to hear. They treat me excellent.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

So, with the arts, do you feel like you you can express yourself more through art or through music?

SPEAKER_01 20:47

In both ways, I I honestly prefer music now. I've been more of the more on the music lane. Like people ask me to choose. I love both, I love art, but I feel like now like I my passion is music. Like putting words together and expressing myself that in ways that I didn't even know how I felt. I would hear a beat, just be writing, you know what I'm saying? And then come up with the hook and then I listen back, like, oh, I felt that way. I didn't even know I felt that way. Recording. Yeah, just recording. And I even had to, you know, I learned how to record myself. So I was just engineering, you know, just on YouTube. Thank God for you know, access. Uh having to access the tools that we can use. So, you know, when I have that that space to just be able to free myself, and I have these feelings that I want to share that I can't I can't exactly share throughout all the time that I I don't know how to share through, but with words I can just give it to you.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Just flow, just give it to you. And there's some empowerment with having that voice, especially to be able to speak to people directly. Exactly those thoughts out so that they can hear them. It makes it it creates a situation where basically you have a sounding board, and you don't have to make yourself live with those thoughts. You can allow them to live, put them out there. But I really support people that put out the Lord, and this is hard to say this because I listen to crazy stuff. Yeah, but yeah, like people that that support um and and give to people emotional areas, you know, space of of so you can validate yourself. You don't think you're crazy. That's what I really want to say.

SPEAKER_03 22:13

And put people in your you know, give access to people in your life. Like, yeah, like that's opening the whole world.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Open all yeah, opening it.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

I don't know how artists do that. Y'all are really wrong.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

It took a while. It took a long time for me to get to this point, and even like, you know, like I said, I started like recording music at 18. So how many years that six years? So I've really been like making music, recording, putting out for six years now. Okay, so like it didn't just start, but like even then, like the first couple years, like I was put music out on SoundCloud. My first song, it did pretty well, it hit like 2K, but it wasn't a good song. Like, you know, I mean, it was it was good, you know, but like was it was it trash? It was it was trash yeah, I like it. For me personally, but it was I was I was decent, you know what I'm saying? But I was just I was still learning, but like I still have songs that I never put up.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Did you have snares on your beats? Yeah, like uh ready, yeah. Yeah, it might be like you know we had no snares. It was just work, y'all had no YouTube beats before that, before that, before YouTube, you had a little so how did Babyface make this track back in the day? And you gotta imagine it was weird, like trying to Yeah, it was weird. So we had to okay, y'all. You sound real backwards, sound.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

But we had we had some hats filling up a roll with that we we we were constructing it. We were trying to be different, we're trying to be weird. We were trying to be weird.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

What year was this?

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Like 2003, maybe? That's gonna be outcast. We're trying to be for real.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Yeah, we're trying to be for real. We thought we were gonna be cool. We had our little nice little drums and stuff with weird sounds. But no stakes we found the power of the stakes. So you're already starting off with a good stage. That's what I'm saying, man. Like you're fast forwarded, and I like singing and talking to young folks because, like, I'm not that old, but I feel like I'm ancient. It it feels like like you all are so much more advanced at your ages than a lot of folks that I deal with. And I know we deal with problems, same issues that people dealt with back in the day. We're still a humans experience in life, right? But it's nice to watch how advanced you all are. Um, even though they don't let us know that people like you exist. I think y'all know their worth.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

I think that you know your worth way more, way more earlier than we do.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

Yeah, we gotta process that.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Yeah, and I'm younger than him. So I you know, but y'all just I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Y'all know even so I went to Malak Creek High School, okay, and it was like even seeing now, like all the kids, is like this the people that were in my class and and in my grade, like they're all doing something. I know guys doing photography, big DJs, NFL, like you know, all these different things. I'm like, but it's it's beautiful to see, like you can we all cut from some of that same cloth.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

Yes, yes, yeah. Plus, you all um, I think you all do a better job at what's the word, not requesting, but demanding. Yeah, demanding what we were doing. We was yeah, we negotiated over here. Some price people talk, we was negotiating and asking politely. Y'all like to receive y'all like no. I'm leveraging everything. Yep, this is mine, I own all my stuff. You will not have me in the 360 deal. Fat is a good idea. And um, that leads right on to our next question and just ownership. And I know uh our previous question, just to build on it, was just asking about knowing your work, like you were saying. Um, I'm gonna hit you with this before I give you this full question. But David Banner maybe really understand this. Artists must put work on what you do. If not, people will take you at what you value yourself as. Not to feel weird to say this, but that feels right. You tell people how to treat you. And if you tell them not to treat you well, you don't show them that you deserve that proper treatment, they will do whatever they want to do. They'll make that decision themselves. And I know a lot of folks that are in the uh realm of people, especially folks who might be into religion loving, loving the Lord and stuff like that, they may take us as being people who are not how you say forceful. Yeah. I'm like, nah, we can be just as forceful. We just are rational. Um, but moving into own shit. Say exactly. I like that stern, y'all. Stern. Um do you create your own, uh not creating your own outcomes, but my force. We already asked about this, but are you interested in starting your own production company?

SPEAKER_01 26:34

I'm not. I'm not interested in starting my own production company. Yeah. I would look for art. I would like to have people I partner with.

unknown 26:41

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 26:41

Because I feel like that's that's that's it's not that don't I say that all the time.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

I'm not asking with that. I'd rather have I'd rather have people I partner and collaborate with because like some things are just out of your realm. And it's gonna take it's it's gonna you only have so much bandwidth. I'm already my bandwidth is I'm like, bro, I'm already on my music tip, my art clubs, trying to put out these different things and then promote it, and I'm on social media doing all these different things. So it's like I don't want to spread myself too thin, but I'd rather find somebody that's aligned with what I'm doing. And I've and I've found that since like since I've like like I said, when I started music and doing all these things, when I align with people, I find somebody to collaborate with, I build on that. Find somebody to collaborate with, build on that. Once the time is season is up, we on to the next thing, we're doing bigger.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Like associates or I have to ask this, you ready? Not that it's ratchet, but I got your question, but associates or friendship things.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

I I I try to have to I say I say more like when I when I partner with somebody, when I'm they have to be on the same levels with me. Like so it really becomes like a family thing. They become family. You don't just do businesses because the doll is good. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I can't. That's what I want. I because you know you get to those points where you're working with different people. Like I've I'm even in the contract right now with this this situation that's it's not it's like it was cool at first, but it was but it was a season, and you know, it's for it was for a season, but I just I don't I'm not being valued in that area. And even when you talk about I feel like I'm not being valued completely, I'm not getting my full worth of what everything that I do. Yeah, and you know, the money has to match. I got kids, period. Everything I got I got family to take care of, and I got bills to pay. So uh I'm a Virgo.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

That's what I was doing.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

I felt the Virgo vibe. I was vibe, and I was like, uh Virgo.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

I'm also a creative, so like everything you were saying, I was like waiting to hang out.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

I had to answer, but y'all gave a high five percent. I'm gonna start picking everything. Um, how do you feel about NFTs? What do you think about NFTs? Their ability to actually service us.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Uh so when NFTs first came out, I seen, you know, it was a lot of hype. Me and my dad. So my dad's a technology guy. Really? He very like, you know what I'm saying, software development, doing all these different things. He's from so my dad's from Trinidad and Tobago. So he was already well advanced before he got here. He got here around 13, yeah, 14, or something like that. And then, you know, he he graduated at like 15, like early on. He's teaching college, he's teaching college courses and stuff like that. So he's like genius, dude. So he was like, you know, I was kind of mentioning it to him a little bit because he's already on the Bitcoin thing trading, he knows all about it. He created his own trading platform and whatnot. But we need does he need to use it? Can we use his training platform? I don't know if I don't think he is now, it's not, it's not up anymore. That's what I was wondering. Um, but so basically we I was like, okay, dad, these NFTs outlook what's going on. We actually created the NFT, it's a 20-wave NFT that's out. Um, I think it should give us the information. I I do. I haven't I haven't been on it as much. I feel like NFTs kind of went down, and you know it's it's been down, so I'm like, I ain't really been on it as much. So like signed the folks on the NG.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

So yeah. But what do you think the because here here's one of our questions I'm just asking this if you do both art? I know a lot of um well-known artists who particip were participating in NFTs, normally we're doing it as a a form of promotion. So like one of the things is with music nowadays, it's less of a physical item outside of the vinyls coming back, and then of course the folks with the cassette than it used to be. Because you used to go get it for the physical uh attraction to the music. Like you would go get it, get your CD, get your vinyl, read the album notes, look at the pictures, because at the time back in uh pre-20 pre-20 2005, I'll say 2006, you didn't have the ability to just go online and look at your artist, Spotify page, etc., see where they came from. All that information had to be in the notes. So you would go to the lineups to know who made this music, who was playing the drums on this, who was who did the album art, what where where he wrote this at, what he was feeling like, and they would write these letters to the fans in the album, like such and such appreciation buying that shit. And so you would go and consume it that way. Um now you can use the NFT to do the same exact thing. And that's what I thought it was gonna do really well and go somewhere. And I know once people got back to the outside, of course, we went back to our normal regular day.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Um I think it just got real oversaturated and overhyped, and people the value, the value went down when everybody's buying these monkey things they don't know about.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

Talk about the monkey thing.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Wait, nah, those things blew my mind. Yeah, they was blowing up different monkey variations, just with different costumes and different things, and all the I mean, it was a ploy, you know, with all the bigger artists like Snoop, all these other guys, they're they're buying them up. Oh, everybody buy what's the board eight, everybody could come get the board eight or whatnot, you know. And it was it just became kind of like a hype thing. And when things start to go off a hype, it devalues it because it just becomes a trend. And trends only trends only last a season. Thanks.

SPEAKER_03 31:57

So, how do you feel about streaming downloads?

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Um, I don't I don't I don't really feel feel no type of way about it because like I I do a lot of streaming. I haven't been like I haven't directly put anything out for direct download to like where you're paying for it. Um I look forward to doing it in the future. Right now, I'm just trying to build the catalog and just just listen.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

The catalog is good, you guys. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

Just listen for now. What I got coming up soon is like Yeah, tell us about it.

SPEAKER_03 32:23

What you have coming up.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Oh, I got honestly, I got a lot of things that I've been cooking up. So right now, um, as far as musically, um I've been working, collaborating with this dude named Gosh Josh. Um he was on the guns down, and then we got a record called Um Around that we're working on that we want to put out, and then it's actually so like a whole little tape, so I'm trying to get him together on that. Oh wow. We got a whole little tape we're trying to put out. Um also we promoting that like crazy. Like we got some great music on there. Some amazing music, but powerful music, yeah. Powerful music. Like this is our this is this is one song. This is not even, I don't even know if this is gonna be on the tape. I gotta save it. But it's it's a uh it's a it's a song called Get Up. And it's not even completely, but it's like, you know, just I like to make music that people can feel that they everybody can resonate, not just one person. Yeah, and I think that's just such a beautiful song. I just make it easy to make my playlist.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

How do you describe your vibe or your aesthetic as an artist? Like I might have to ask you.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

I feel like I so I won't say I'm a conscious rapper, but I say I make life music, like hip-hop. I'm I'm under I say I'm under the hip-hop category. It's not rap. So yeah, I won't say rap. I I'm a rapper. I I'm hip-hop, but I rap.

SPEAKER_03 33:34

Okay, I'm just I get it. Because that was the question we asked.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

No, you're right, you're right. I like that you said it like that too. But I rap, you know what I'm saying? And I I I like to put songs together with meaning. I like they they gotta, they gotta everything don't even gotta be meaning, like just concise, like even with the topics I'm talking about. I can be talking about make it make sense. Like, I just can't be saying a whole bunch of random words and they not all go together. Like this word has to go to this word, to this word for it to make sense. You know what I'm saying? And it has to be a sequence of things, and some people like I feel some people I feel like they just put random bars, like I did this, this, this. Oh, I got this girl. Uh-huh. You know what I'm saying? Like, come on, bro. Like, I I rock with all forms of music. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like, another place for it. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I like I yeah, I still listen to the dark thugs, you know what I'm saying? All these guys, but like, I really been to my RB bag for real right now. I love telling you music. So what what what right now on my way here? So I don't know if I just I just got here from Kentucky yesterday. Oh, you just said that you just touched back down. Yeah, I just touched back down. Uh, you know, I'm just here for the weekend, so y'all come here at the right time.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

I was like, how's he gonna be here today?

SPEAKER_01 34:44

I'm not gonna lie, because I was supposed to have a show. I was supposed to have a show today. Yeah, um out here, uh but we canceled it when we postponed it because of the rain, it was outside and stuff like that. But we yeah, we got a great time. Oh, that's perfect. And then I and then we he told me we postponed it. I was like, Well, I'm already on the podcast, I'm gonna I'm gonna just come out, come vibe, and whatnot, and I got some other stuff going on. So we just come rock out. What was I talking about?

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Uh RB bad.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

I mean listen to some on the on the way here, I was listening to Sir. Oh on the way here. Heavy album, yeah. I felt that because I felt like you know, like it's been it's been heavy on me recently. Like it just I just had a lot of weight on me, like you know, life, personal stuff, like just everything, just trying to get everything together. So hearing that album and the things like I'm not perfect, all these different things. I haven't had an album speak to me like that in a long time. Like, I just listened to Blue Lits by School Boy Q that was good, yeah. But like this one just hit me. Like it was made for your situation. It was made for my situation right on time. Like it was right on time when I got on the road. I ain't been on the road in a while. Yeah, it's been about three months since I've been back since December. So I was like, you could before when I first moved, I moved about a year and a half ago. I'll travel about every two weeks, coming back and forth, doing murals, shows.

SPEAKER_03 36:07

Speaking of murals, I have to do a mural coming up, so I'll be hitting you up for some work. Okay, yes, hitting for some uh tips. I got you.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

I got you. I want to see how you pay how you draw it out, the measurements.

SPEAKER_03 36:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:19

To get the how do y'all do that? Um, it's that everybody that does a mural.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

So at first I used to, so when I first started, like I did my first mural during the quarantine, like that's when I first became a full-time artist. Okay. One of my friends' mom hit me, she was like, Can you do paint my whole backyard, my offense, Jamaica, and all that type of stuff? Oh yeah, she paid me like 4K. I was like, Oh yeah, I'm being an artist full time. I'm gonna go back to the back. You have to start the mural all the time. But at first, I was just, you know what I'm saying, just doing like, you know, like free handing it. And then there's other ways. Obviously, you got the grid method. Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. That's what I was wondering.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Forget all of that.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

I'm working over that, yeah. Use a projector, right? But they're just like you you do have that out in certain circumstances, may work, sometimes it doesn't, but you gotta know how to know where you got the scales because sometimes some rooms are super close, so you're not gonna be able to use it. So you gotta, but when you have that advantage, at the end of the day, your heart is a business, you want the best outcome, you want to want the best harder, smarter, harder, and you want to have give people value. So I'm gonna give you value by giving you the best product that you can get. I'm gonna show it up on a projector, give you exactly what you want. I can show you before we even do it. When I give you a consultation, I'm gonna put the projector up, show you say that word, and you say consultation.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Yeah, that's how you gotta do it. I like that. So call the Anderson. Get you all. Please present your business in a very professional fashion. Yes, make sure that you give them the same service, etc., that you would have to anybody in the community because one of the things that we lack, specifically in the black community, is other communities have the same issue. Customer service, good products, and quality work. You gotta deliver that before you can ask for anybody to pay top dollar for market value. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

So that's why I've got a lesson, yeah. And you know, even when you talked about value earlier, like it started off, I started off like $15 per square foot, then I start to go up. Yeah, and then but sometimes I would find myself devaluing myself for certain situations, and you know, like, okay, I can give you a deal on this just to get it out there. And you know, everything is planting the seeds sometimes. Sometimes you do gotta plant them seeds. I didn't get I didn't get whole whole murals for free.

SPEAKER_03 38:24

Right. See, yeah, no, I'm gonna talk to you.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Yeah, I did I did so it was a joint called the night. Y'all heard of the 90s museum. I did a whole thing because I see another artist, and I want to go there and do it. So I did that whole thing for free, but she blessed me actually with uh the opportunity to do like my whole uh my first album release for Hop Star, my project release. Okay, she allowed me to do that there in that space, so in that build up, you built the bridge, but also you know, that's another lesson. Yeah, so sometimes it is you can if you want to do barter system, do your barter system.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

Y'all original barters, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

I'm gonna say I've been using a barter system sometimes, so it's it comes in handy because I know you know, yeah, from music videos and all of that. It's been a blessing.

SPEAKER_03 39:03

So what can we expect from you in the future besides the music? What art you have you doing for?

SPEAKER_01 39:08

So, yes, I'm actually working on a collection, so I didn't bring those pieces in now, but I have a piece that I did at my Sun Prince. So I'm working on a whole series like that. Uh it's talking about innocence, and you know, just I wanted to bring back a nostalgic feeling and the colors to really pop, and I'm really tapping into my style as an artist and really just having those things that's familiar to people, but that's something that could that could reach all audiences. So, like you a lot of times I do the hip-hop stuff and you know, maybe do a face, but I'm not a fan of that, really. Yeah, I I did that before just to like okay, like I like painting faces, I'm gonna paint popular people, whatnot. People like it. It's a good fan service and whatnot, but it's not good for like, you know, longevity, longevity. It's not good for like, you know, being a uh artist artist, having having your own individual pieces, styles, pieces, and things. So people want to see that. So I'm actually working on that series. I plan on doing some exhibitions out there in Kentucky. Hopefully, I can get some out here. Yeah, man. I love I love Lexington, but like not Kentucky, I say Lexington because Louisville's a little bit further ahead, like they're more like Charlotte in that's in that sense. But Lexington uh is a little bit behind because like even at the residency that I'm at, I'm like the third black artist. I'm the third, I'm the first black painter. So the first one was a dude named Devine Cromwell. He's on my uh guns down record. Okay, he's activist, does a lot of things on Jennifer Hudson, whatnot. He's they brought him in as a resident, but he did he just has a little office in there, so he wasn't even like he's like recording artists. Recording, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:35

So not a visual artist.

SPEAKER_01 40:36

So my boy Bryce, he's the first visual artist, and I'm the first black painter. Okay, so like y'all are setting a standard, so yeah. So it's like it's just crazy to see, but we we're trying to reach those levels, even though where Charlotte is at. Like, I was just last night at CLT as Creative with Michaela Benter and all those people, they do an amazing job. They had a mixer for the whole month. So I think y'all should definitely go there. Makers and creators, tap in with CLT as Creative, they always have stuff going on. But um, as far as stuff I got going on, I also got Matt Wavy Radio with under NPR. So it's like so me and Bryce, we work together. It's with WKY Radio and then NPR, so it's on both of their websites. They post it up. So we're on episode two right now. So it's like a podcast, it's artist talk and do all those things. We don't got video format yet. We do got we just did it on camera, like my phone camera, but we're working on that. We're on episode two, so we just do we talk about what's going on in hip hop, we talk about what's going on in the community, we talk about what's going on um in arts and movies, even character he passed. We talked about that and his influence on hip hop, all these different things.

SPEAKER_03 41:39

So I'll check it out. Yeah, so y'all check y'all check it out. How can people check you out?

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Just uh just search Mad Wavy Radio if y'all want to check out the radio show, or just hit me. You know what I'm saying? I'm on all social media platforms under Tony Wavy. All you gotta do, T-O-N-Y, W A B Y music, T-O-N-Y, W A B Y. It's very simple. Just you all you gotta do is do a little Googling. Uh, you'll pretty far finding pretty quickly. So if you want to check out the music, I'm on YouTube music videos out. Y'all check out that guns down. Yeah, we're pushing that message of you know, putting the guns down in the community. I see Charlotte just has something crazy going on. Yes, but everybody's pushing, put the guns down. My boy, um uh, what's his name? Uh Hustle Man. I don't know if y'all know Hustle Man out here. He's pretty, he's pretty he's pretty big in like the hip hop. He's like, he's a you know, just a character. I say that. Okay, he's a dope guy, just do a lot, but you know, he I believe he just got shot, but like I want to push that same message out here in Charlotte. So just trying to reach that community because I want it to be like it's not just the Kentucky thing where guns down, but it's it's everywhere in the whole world. And I'm not saying don't carry, don't carry, but like you know, I'm saying, like, keep your stuff, but like don't be that's not that's that's not the first weapon first. You got you got words, speak, you know what I'm saying? Communicate, you don't have to go straight to aggression, yes, or you know, violence. Yeah, it's it's so many other answers before that. Yeah, so I agree.

SPEAKER_03 43:01

I like the way you summed that up. Shout out, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Shout out to anything, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Uh yeah, shout, you know what I'm saying? I got a lot of I shout out to all the surfers, everybody who's riding the wave. Okay, because I wanted to answer if you could explain your name. This oh the oh, I'll explain the name. I'll explain the name real quick before I go into all the shout-outs and stuff. So Tony Wavy, I created the name back in high school around 10th grade on Instagram, Tony. I had a few variations at first, but then I stuck with Tony Wavy because I got that because I had waves. I was a waver, like could I have been in that name? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's just style to keep the new rag on bursting all day. I was a waver. So but then now we got to the point where everything's a wave, like the vibe is a wave. I'm I'm on my own wave, I flow on the beat, it's wavy, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm rapping, it's wavy, my style wavy, everything wavy. So, you know, and then as far as shout outs, I just want to shout out to all my family. I can't say individual name because everybody's part of that journey, you know what I'm saying? My mom, dad, all those people, my wife, everybody, cousins, auntie, they've all supported me. Uh from my collective YH Art Gang who out here, shout out to them. I'm gonna just shame Family Families Direct, and then I'm gonna say um YH Art Gang. That's my collective that's out here. Yeah, uh TQ, Portia, uh, Art, Johnny who make all my beats, um, everybody who part of Danny. Um, and then of course, my boy Bryce, uh, shout out Art League. Shout out Art League, Art Lee.

SPEAKER_03 44:26

That's our that's what we know here, but you gotta put us on to the rest of Charlotte.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

Yeah, it's it's it's a it's a lot of stuff that's going on in Charlotte, like honestly. Like, so hell man, I know it is.

SPEAKER_02 44:35

You can feel the vibe of the city and the the amount of folks working here doing stuff that is good, amazing, makes us feel good.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

And they're giving out a lot, hey, for all the artists out there, they make they're giving out a lot of grants. That's a lot of grants of it. I'm gonna realize money in that. It's it's it's a lot of money. You just gotta fill them out. Yeah, yeah. That's all I'm gonna say, because a lot of them don't even be that hard. But just tap in, like, because there's things like CLT shout coming out, uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:01

I'm gonna go to that this next weekend. Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

I'm gonna be here. I will be here.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

Sha didn't pick me to perform, but it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:11

They keep on the jet.

SPEAKER_01 45:14

It's uh it's uh assuming that they be calm, but uh I thought they got that, they got confidence. But but yeah, but everything, everything in his timing, everything in his timing. So it's it's a lot of people I can shout out. Shout out to y'all, shout out to the Pas, shout out to Hilltop, you know what I'm saying for always showing love to the music and everything and putting me on y'all playlist. I truly appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 45:38

Honestly, like I tell you, you make the playlist, you can make it because I can put your music on there and be like, all right, I don't think I'm gonna offend nobody. Right. I feel good and confident putting it on there. Okay. Um, yeah, this is something that I've been dealing with because I took this over from buttons. Some stuff is I want to put up there, but I don't need to get backlash. Yeah. So trying to figure out something that's motivational, but also have some fun in it. I tell everybody gotta put a little ratchet on it. Because this is what I'm listening to. But you know, I always like to make sure we have things that you can listen to, drive me through your week, get five songs five days a week, you drive right on through, listen to the podcast, feel good about self-confident, know that you learned something from what you heard. So try not to waste anybody's time. We greatly appreciate you being here with us today. Asylum. Yes, yes, yes. What I have to do, that's about my little wrap up. I must shout out Asylum Digital Studios. This is where we're recording at today in Charlotte, North Carolina. Um, our our best friend, man, good friend, um, supporters got Slave, who's allowing us to use uh we've actually been here twice this season. Uh we were here last season as well. Offers a great space for us to do this. But they also have an excellent studio for you to come here and use services if you need to while you're here in Charlotte. Please stop and say hello, go to the website. Matter of fact, we're on a website, the pictures and stuff up here doing this on the website. So um, I'm telling you, we support lots of great equipment in here. Yeah, the staff is nice, the place is clean, super nice, restroom area. They set it up well. So it's off the beaten path, so you don't have to worry about traffic, etc. Great party, no problems. With that being said, my name is DJ and what? This is Tony Wavy, hey Papa Casa. Man, we appreciate you today, but I forgot I can't do this on the background. We got Mike. Skip is here. Skip has landed. So we have the whole crew here. We greatly appreciate you being here with us today. Um, always like to tell folks um at the end to make sure you tell somebody next to you that you love them, that you appreciate them, that you care for them. You don't know what's going on the next day, what's going on in life, but we gotta let people around us know that we love them. Talk love into the next episode. Peace.